Dr. Les Wilkes’ award-winning photograph of Hospice Savannah patient Nellie Pearson and her two daughters shows them engaged in something they love to do — sing hymns.

In the case of the photo, the hymn was “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” — which is what Les called the picture, the winner of a recently concluded contest conducted by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

One of Nellie’s daughters, Jackie Tomlin, calls the photo just plain “Joy.”

“That’s what it was,” said Jackie of the moment captured in the shot. “It’s just a happy time.

“Everybody that loves my mother loves that picture.”

The shot is from one of about 200 photo sessions of Hospice Savannah patients in which Ardsley Park resident Wilkes has participated during the four years he’s served as a volunteer with the nonprofit organization’s Family Photography and Honoring Our Veterans programs.

His longtime friend Diane Booker of Tybee Island started the programs about five years ago, and she and Les perform their voluntary photography service on a regular basis.

It’s something they do, said Les, “for people near the end of life who might not have good photos” of themselves with members of their families.

“We spend some time with them, and give them four or five nice portraits and a CD with all the photos taken,” he said.

Patients who are military veterans receive the same treatment, and, also, “we honor them by thanking them for their service and by giving them a plaque,” said Les, who retired in March after practicing for 40 years as an orthopedic surgeon in Savannah. “We are always accompanied by another vet, in uniform and in their (the patients’) arm of service.”

Les said he now takes part in at least one Hospice Savannah photography session a week, “sometimes two or three.”

“It’s become a real big part of my life,” he said, noting that the volunteer work provides him with an opportunity to combine his longtime love of taking photographs with what he calls “a mission.”

His interest in photography began when he was in the seventh or eighth grade in his hometown of Quitman, Ga., and it re-intensified seven years ago when he stopped performing operations.

Les became involved in the Hospice Savannah programs when Diane, a retired nurse who had been taking photos of patients for about a year, asked him to help her out with the volunteer work.

“It was a natural thing for me,” he said.

His work has been good enough to win the first-place award in this year’s photo contest by the aforementioned national hospice organization; first place two years ago; and third place last year. There were about 300 entries in the 2012 contest, Les said.

The “Everlasting Arms” photo was taken at the Whitemarsh Island condo shared by Nellie Pearson and her daughters, Jackie Tomlin and Neldra Flint, and it pictures the three women exulting in song along with Hospice Savannah music therapist Amy Adams.

“Amy is a godsend,” said Jackie. “Sometimes my mother is lethargic, but any time Amy comes, she brightens up.

“My mother loves to sing — she comes alive,” said Jackie of Nellie, who’s 88 and has been in the care of Hospice Savannah since she and her daughters moved here from Columbus, Ga., almost a year ago.

Hospice care, said Jackie, “is about celebrating the living,” and the photo captures a part of that celebration.

“Everybody has that picture,” said Jackie, referring to Nellie’s family, including her three grandchildren. “It’s on Facebook, and every member of the family has that picture.